Praise for BLOOD ROSE

‘Margie Orford has nailed it. BLOOD ROSE is wonderfully crafted and fully engrossing. It's a book that stays with you, even after the last page is turned.’
Michael Connelly

‘Margie Orford, South Africa’s queen of crime writing...’
Mail & Guardian

‘One of the discoveries of the year: the second Clare Hart novel…Orford's sense of place and her descriptions of it are extraordinary. Tautly plotted, her characters move seamlessly into place. Her theft of another author's main character is an act of supreme insouciance and adds to the sheer enjoyment of this immensely skilful novel.’
Jenny Crwys-Williams

‘BLOOD ROSE is like witblits on the literary tongue, searing but satisfying. Orford has produced a new fast-paced Clare Hart thriller, this time catapulting her heroine into the grim sordidness of an isolated Namibian desert-town. The spiral into depravity is matched only by the determination of the investigating team to destroy it at its source. The writing is precise and economical, as Orford snaps relentlessly at the heels of the unfolding drama, forcing the pace and keeping her characters on their toes. BLOOD ROSE grips the reader in a sleek but powerful fist, holding tight until the last speeding corner has been turned.’
Andrew Brown, author of COLDSLEEP LULLABY
(winner of the Sunday Times Literary Awards 2006)

‘A taut thriller…well-researched and has a political twist that adds to the serial killer plotline…the characters are multi-dimensional and flawed: for instance, Riedwaan drinks whiskey, but baulks at pork…Orford’s writing transcends boundaries of place and time, making BLOOD ROSE a story that will appeal to a wide market…including those who might not necessarily be thriller fans. BLOOD ROSE is addictive, and I await Orford’s next book with anticipation.’
Jennifer Crocker, Fair Lady Magazine

‘Orford delivers another page turner. The verdict? Margie Orford has scored a second hit. BLOOD ROSE is superbly plotted, packed with thrills, spills and canoodling. It is also an interesting read. Orford presents fascinating insights into the Toppenaar people who live in Namibia...I cannot wait to find out what Clare gets up to next. There are seven books in the series and Orford is working on number three, DADDY’S GIRL.’
Robyn Cohen, Cape Times

‘Margie Orford…is a name you should commit to memory…She has reprised the role of Dr. Clare Hart in BLOOD ROSE…and has presented an even more savvy, believable character in this second outing…BLOOD ROSE is an excellent crime thriller and Dr. Clare Hart is set to become as popular as Patricia Cornwell’s forensic investigator Kay Scarpetta and Kathy Reich’s forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.’
Samantha Page, O, The Oprah Magazine (SA)

‘Here’s a thriller with layered resonances…Dr Clare Hart is independent, yet vulnerable, with wounds that lie in her past, this is a character with whom you can identify. She’s both flawed and real and infinitely complex. There are, you feel, layers behind layers; this is no cardboard creation…BLOOD ROSE delivers a read that is thrilling and satisfying.’
Arja Salafranca, Diamond Fields Advertiser

'A dark and compelling crime story, which exposes the underbelly of porn and prostitution in the Mother City...BLOOD ROSE…the second in the series...delves into issues affecting Namibians, such as corruption, poverty and violent crime. The local characters...are all authentic representations of contemporary Namibian society...a gripping who-dunnit – filled with local flavour, this is an excellent choice.'
The Namibian Weekender

‘There’s no hanging about in Margie Orford’s second thriller…BLOOD ROSE is an enjoyable read, helped by Orford’s attention to detail in describing the various forensic, pathology and ballistics procedures.’
Business Day

‘I find crime thrillers deeply disturbing and wouldn’t generally pick one up but Orford is such a good storyteller that I’m glad I made an exception to my rule.’

Melanie Farrell Femina

‘Walvis Bay appears to be populated with some awfully strange people, and author Margie Orford does a good job with them, from the street children whose home is a rubbish dump to a small, red-headed child, struck mute after a traumatic car accident; from Russian strippers to cargo-ship captains, and the Topnaar people who live in the desert. The minor characters are carefully drawn…And Walvis Bay appears many times more interesting than Cape Town…the pace is good and the puzzle intricate…Michael Connelly’s comment…that “Margie Orford has nailed it”. Yep. True.’ 
Barbara Ludman, Mail & Guardian Online

‘There is everything krimi fans could want in this novel: gruesome corpses, good cops, bad cops, forensic fascinations, a seething underbelly of hidden agendas let alone the vulnerability of Clare Hart as she ventures ever deeper into this particular heart of darkness. If in LIKE CLOCKWORK the pace never slackened, the same must be said for BLOOD ROSE.’
Mike Nicol, Crime Beat (SA)

‘Walvis Bay…on Namibia’s eerie western shore. The perfect place to set a murder mystery. Margie Orford has captured all of the coast’s strangeness in her second novel – BLOOD ROSE…In her first outing, LIKE CLOCKWORK, Orford thrillingly exposed the dark, disquieting underbelly of the Mother City…effectively weaving the wild and worrying history and characteristics of our port town and its surrounding desert into a taught thriller starring her heroine – criminal profiler Dr Clare Hart…As with all good thrillers, the killer’s identity and the motive for the murders elude Clare and Riedwaan until the final breathless pages. Although a rip-roaring thriller in format, BLOOD ROSE resonates with uncomfortable Namibian realities…For local readers, it is a pleasure to come across a classy work of fiction steeped in Namibian authenticity. But there is every sign that BLOOD ROSE’s appeal will stretch far beyond the limited book market in Southern Africa.’
Graham Hopwood, Insight Namibia

‘As an investigative journalist, Orford is disciplined about doing the necessary research that gives fiction authenticity, and in the case of the Hart thrillers, flags them as quality writing…While writing BLOOD ROSE, she brushed up on ballistics first-hand and learned to shoot. Of course, there’s also the other side of BLOOD ROSE – the difficult but passionate relationship between Hart and Faizal…who engage in a complicated on-off romance that rings true to life. They’re both likeable but flawed characters who jump off the page; the maturity of Orford’s writing is evidenced by the fact that their story is never outshone by the gruesome crime they are paid – more than that – driven, to solve. Sex, murder, mystery, hands-on research and switchback plotting. There’s no reason that Hart shouldn’t rack up a successful hit rate beyond our borders. Rights to the first two books have already been snapped up in Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic and Russia, while high-profile French publisher Payot & Rivages has requested the upcoming third novel as well: DADDY’S GIRL will thrust Clare Hart deep into Cape Town’s ganglands, as topical a setting as you’re likely to get.’
Gareth Pike, Sunday Times (SA)

‘Orford has an ear for dialogue and an eye for the complexities of post-1994 southern Africa. Perhaps it is her years working as a journalist that enable her to write evocatively but with such conciseness and clarity.’
Business Day Weekender

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